Mapping the Cayuga Lake Inlet & Other Tributaries

A few weeks ago my graduate adviser offhandedly mentioned that there was a need to develop a more detailed outline of the south end of Cayuga Lake for the hydrologic model he and some colleagues are working on. There is a particularly high need for a more accurate outline of the inlet and other contributing waterways at the southern tip of the lake. In an effort to validate my kayaking with some sort of productive excuse, I offered to take a GPS along while I paddled as far as possible up the various tributaries of Cayuga Lake.

Last Sunday some Ithaca kayaking buddies (Ben, Rob, and Esther) and I headed down to Cass Park to attempt to map the inlet. The GPS seemed to be working and recording data as we paddled, which was a relief! The channels we paddled (from west to east) included:

#1 The "Inlet" - The widest and longest of the four, this channel is relatively unexciting. The wind was coming from the south, so we had a pretty strong breeze to paddle against on the way down. We were stopped by a dam across the channel.

#2 A nameless (?) side channel - The beginning of the channel has a long boat house where a number of big boats are propped up above the water for the winter. It was the perfect (and slightly scary) opportunity to play kayak Limbo: That red thing above my boat is a HUGE boat propped up on some little legs...

This channel also takes you past Wegmans, which is always very exciting. Before getting to Wegmans, however, you pass The Jungle. It's a little triangle of land owned by the railroad company that the homeless of Ithaca have called their home for more than 70 years. Click here to see some pictures and here for more about the Jungle.

#3 Six Mile Creek - This section of the creek is not the most scenic.. We paddled past some  suburban plazas, and were once again limited by the shallow water.

#4 Cascadilla Creek - The entrance to this creek is north a bit, right near the Ithaca wastewater treatment plant. Part of the goal of modeling the lake is to see how much of an effect point-source pollution (like wastewater treatment plants) has on the lake compared with non-point source pollution (like fertilizer runoff). Anyways, we were shortly limited by the shallow water. This channel had many more down trees blocking off sides of the creek.

I'm not sure how successful it was from a GPS standpoint (I haven't had a chance to look at the data yet). It was hard to maintain a constant distance from shore due to super shallow water, docks, and fallen trees. We were, however, successful in having an enjoyable kayaking trip. Rob demonstrated a new feat: kayak pull-ups on low bridges:

He also tested his cold water rolling abilities... even later in the year than last time!

Date: November 14th, 2010
Distance: 10 miles
Weather: Partly cloudy, pretty windy, 60ish degrees F

Elbow & Straight Jacket Rolls!

At the pool session last week, I decided to try these two new (for me) Greenland-style rolls (no... I'm not talking about sushi... that would be gross). Luckily Ben was there to film it when I unexpectedly surfaced. This little boat is a magical rolling machine!

 

Elbow Roll

Watch Cheri Perry do it here. I didn't realize that I could extend my left arm out at the end. It also looks like I should tuck a bit more at the beginning. Yay for movies!

 

Straight Jacket Roll

Watch Cheri Perry do it here. I crossed my arms a little differently than she does, and I probably need a bit more snap at the end. But yay for managing to get up in the first place!

Majestic Clay Cliffs at Chimney Bluffs State Park

The tired wipers pushed aside the sleet clumps and rain drops landing on my windshield. My toasty seat heater made it hard to believe the thermometer that bounced between 35 and 39 degrees as I made the two hour trip north from Ithaca to Sodus Bay.

The plan was to meet the rest of the Surf Rangers at a launch site just east of Chimney Bluffs State Park at 10am. We shivered as we pulled on our extra warm kayaking gear. As the only one without a dry suit, I was lucky that Dennis had an extra one. Although it was meant for surfing and looked goofy next to the kayaker-specific dry suits, it fit well and kept me quite warm!

The eight of us (Dave, Morgan, Jeff Berry, Jeff Houck, Heather, Sue, Dennis, and I) launched into Lake Ontario around 11am. The waves were about 3 ft high - enough to make it interesting, but not enough to make it nerve-wracking since all the paddlers present are very comfortable in medium surf conditions.

We paddled about a mile east, around the point and towards the entrance to East Bay. Last year when we paddled the same route the point created some interesting interference patterns - with the 6- 7ft waves breaking farther from shore. It was much calmer this time around.

The entrance to East bay was mostly closed (it gets filled in at the end of the season every year), so we beached and portaged over to the bay-side. Here's a picture of Sue and Morgan coming into shore in the surf. This is seconds before Sue (who almost never capsizes) flipped over as she was trying to keep from running into Morgan...

The wind was much calmer on the bay. We paddled as far as possible through the wetlands - until we reached a bridge blocked off by a beaver dam. At this point we stopped to warm up and have some lunch. It was still drizzling slightly, so some of us huddled under Dave's emergency igloo and snacked on Morgan's delicious cookies to stay warm!

On our way out of the bay we decided to try and shoot through the small opening in the wall. A quick turn into the surf and we were all safe and bobbing out on lake again. The paddle back was enjoyable - it was warming up slightly and the rain had stopped.

We continued past our launch site to check out the Bluffs from our boats. Chimney Bluffs is a set of jagged clay cliffs lying on Lake Ontario's southern shore. Over time, rain, wind, and waves have eroded a glacial drumlin (see Wikipedia for a good description) to form the cliffs. As time goes on, they get smaller and smaller.

In true Rough-Rider style, we finished our paddle with some fun group pictures:

Once we were all dry, changed, and packed-up, we headed up the trail to check out the cliffs from the rim trail. By this time the sky was clearing up and the sun was shining on the cliffs, making for some very majestic views.

We walked back along the beach. The pebbles on the beach have been polished and rounded over thousands of years, resulting in a very beautiful mixture of colored stones. Dave and I had a strange urge to sort the beach into different colors...

We all headed to a Heather-recommended Mexican restaurant (El Rincon Mexicano) in Sodus for dinner. The food was spicy but delicious. Jeff, whose specialty is Salsa dancing, taught some of us to dance Salsa! This also happened to be the day the restaurant was celebrating El Dia de los Muertos, so we were entertained by a bunch of dancing children!

After a fun-filled day of wintery kayaking, I decided to invest in a pair of paddling gloves and pogies. With these and the dry suit that Dennis is letting me borrow, I will continue paddling into the winter. I won't let kayaking season end!

Date: November 6th, 2010
Distance: 8 miles
Weather: 37 degrees, a bit drizzly, a bit sunny

Last, Smallest, Shortest, but Certainly One of the Best: Canadice Lake.

I'll admit it. I'm feeling a little sentimental right now. Bear with me please :)

In my first post I laid out my paddling goals for this summer. Some were intentionally ambitious and others were intentionally ambiguous. At some point last spring it occurred to me (possibly caused by some senior year sentimentality) that I live in an incredibly beautiful region called the Finger Lakes that's lush with kayaking opportunities that I had never really taken advantage of. I set out to circumnavigate or paddle at least 15 miles on each of the11 Finger Lakes by the end of the year. It wasn't really a challenging goal, but it certainly took some great company, planning, dedication, and hours in the car. Over the past 6 months I managed to drag myself and my friends to 24 different bodies of water, and I loved every minute of it! I guess now it's time to make some new goals!

Today we (Heather, Jeff Bu., Nick, Ben, Rob, and I) paddled the perimeter of Canadice Lake (Iroquois for "Long Lake," even though it's the shortest one!). After a slight delay on my part due to a desire for Honey Crisp apples from Honeoye, we put in at the only official put-in: on the east side, about a mile down the lake.

We headed south towards the shallow/swampy part of the lake. Similar to Hemlock Lake, virtually none of the Canadice shores are developed, apart from a few random canoes/aluminum boats strewn in the woods. We immediately noticed (and played around in) the stands of dead trees in the water at the south end - a sight we haven't really seen on any of the other Finger Lakes. There were also many flocks of birds hanging out at the south end of the lake.

After dabbling around the south end for a while, we headed back up along the west shore where we scoped out a stopping point for lunch. From the water rings around the tree trunks it looked like the water level was fairly low. It was easy to find a rocky beach where we could get out and stretch our legs.

A big stink bug that found its way onto Jeff's pants...

By the time we headed out after lunch the water was so calm that you could see perfect reflections on the water:

 

Nick's boat perfectly matched the scenery today:

At the north end of the lake lies a dam that holds the water level of the lake higher than it would naturally be. It was fun to get out and explore it. There was a big concrete spillway to allow runoff in the case of a big rain storm.

It was mostly exciting as a great spot to shoot pictures from above:

We soon headed back towards the put-in where Rob and Ben practiced some rolling.  When we were back on land Heather pulled out a surprise bottle of sparkling wine and Rob threw in some delicious chocolate! We managed to get some funny looks from other boaters who were coming and going.

We ended the day at a Mexican restaurant in Canandaigua that Heather suggested. It was delicious and delightful. I'll leave you with this sunset on Canadice Lake:

Date: October 24th, 2010
Distance: 7 miles
Weather: Perfectly fall

Glimpses of a Pond in Autumn

Just wanted to share a few pictures of the fall foliage around the pond behind our house in Lincoln, MA.

  

 

I love fall... Just wanted to add another water-related post since kayaking has been MIA lately. Canadice Lake this weekend!

Romping around Red River Gorge

What are the first 5 things that come to mind when you think of Cincinnati, OH? If you like sports (and the accompanying menu), you probably think:

1. Bengals
2. Reds
3. Skyline
4. Graeters
5. Industry

My list is a little different:

1. Procter & Gamble
2. Red River Gorge
3. Hofbrauhaus
4. Jungle Jim's
5. Graeters

Ironically, 40% of the items on my list (and probably a higher percentage if I went with top 10) are actually in Kentucky.  I must say, Kentucky is a pretty sweet place. About 1 hour east of Lexington (3 hours south-ish of Cincinnati) lies Red River Gorge, within the Daniel Boone National Forest. Since my first internship at P&G two years ago, I've managed to make it to the gorge/forest 5 times, which is comparable to the number of times I've tasted Graeters ice cream. Ok, enough of that. The point I'm trying to make is that there isn't a whole lot of easily accessible outdoorsy stuff/people in Cincinnati.

Me and Terry, heading out on our second hike!

This past weekend was fall break for Cornell, so what did I do? I hopped on a plane for Cincinnati! Among other less blog-friendly events, Terry and I headed down to Red River Gorge for some hiking. The gorge is famous for its numerous natural rock arches, formed by the Red River over thousands of years.

After an unusually short drive (I call it teleporting, Terry calls it speeding), we arrived in RRG to find that, in addition to the stifling 85+ degree weather, the sky was incredibly hazy, and it smelled like burning trash in much of the park. Sure enough, many sections of the park had been closed off due to forest fires:

Forest fires near Gray's Arch

We stopped by the Gladie Center to get advice on which trails to hike. Terry informed the park rangers that we wanted a 'pretty strenuous' hike.  They were able to recommend a few different hikes. We started off with a short one called the Bison Way Trail (#210). After about a mile it branches, and if you take a left you can take a side trail to the right that takes you up to "Indian Staircase" (which we thought was Indian Circus for way too long). This 'staircase' is really just a big slab of rock with very few things to grab onto. There are a few footholds worn into the rock, but overall it was pretty nerve-wracking. Here's a picture of one leg of the staircase:

"Indian Staircase" - a scary rock slide that we climbed up.

Once we finished that hike, we took a break for a lunch picnic in front of the welcome center. Since many of the trails were closed, we decided to re-hike a trail we'd done previously called the Auxier Ridge Trail (#204). This leads past Haystack Arch to Courthouse Rock:

Courthouse Rock

From there we took the Auxier Branch trail to the Double Arch Trail. The Double Arch is unusual in that it has two gaps in it. In the picture below you can just barely see the top gap in the arch (this picture was taken on the first leg of the hike, before we hiked over to stand underneath it):

As seen from the Auxier Ridge Trail

Here is a picture of the Double Arch as seen from below:

Chilling under the Double Arch (also an advertisement for BayCreek)

We scrambled up to the top of the arch and wandered around. It felt a little strange to be walking on a slab of rock with nothing below it, but it seemed fairly trustworthy since it's been there for thousands of years. Finally, we took the Double Arch trail back to the parking lot. This required us to walk along some dirt roads, but they were quite scenic dirt roads.

Before driving back to Cinci, we made a much needed stop at the famous Miguel's Pizza (a hot spot for the climbers that frequent the gorge). We debated whether the pizza only tasted good because we'd just hiked all day, or because it's actually good pizza... we will never be sure, but it tasted damn good after a long day's hike!

Otisco: A Lake with a Split Personality

Today couldn't have been more perfect: perfect weather on Otisco, magnificent fall colors surrounding us, no motor boats on the water, and great turnout! Eleven of us (Daniel & Amy, Ben, Laurie, Don, Mike, and I from Ithaca, and Jeff B., Jeff H., Heather, and Nick from Rochester!) showed up for this beautiful paddle. After a few wrong turns, an incredibly steep hill, and some pungent overheated brakes, we all managed to meet at the causeway at the southwest end of the lake:

 Causeway - A road elevated on a raised embankment, usually across a broad body of water.

A brief history (to make up for forgetting my tour guide notes!): Otisco Lake is the east-most Finger Lake. The valley where it lies was formed by the same continental glacier that formed the rest of the Finger Lakes. The lake, however, was formed from the damming of Nine Mile Creek, which flows north through the valley. The area south of the causeway has very different water quality from the rest of the lake because it was originally a wetland. In 1869 the water level of the lake was raised 9ft for use in the Erie Canal. In 1908 it was raised another 4ft to provide drinking water for Syracuse.

Date: October 3rd, 2010
Weather: Sunny, 60 degrees, breezy - perfect!
Distance: 13.5 miles (9.5 to the top of the lake and back, and 4 miles exploring the south end)

We launched around 1:30pm, and headed north. It was a big group, but since all were competent paddlers, we stayed together quite well. We chit-chatted our way up the lake (bonding as kayakers do), and arrived at The Narrows (a section at the north end of the lake that's separated from the rest of the lake by a narrower section) in no time. We were having a hard time finding Otisco Lake Park (the only other public access spot on the lake) so Jeff & Jeff sped over to some residents sitting out on their dock to ask for directions. We found the park shortly after, located a little ways down the east shore of the lake. It was a quaint little park, with no bathrooms or buildings, but it was a beautiful place to take a lunch break on this sunny October afternoon:

Relaxing in the sun after an afternoon lunch break.

 

Nick getting back out on the water.

 

 

Daniel, Jeff, and Amy playing in the water

 

Kayakers are beautiful

We headed back down the lake, encountering many waterfowl along the way!

 

Ben, Jeff, and Mike disturbing the wildlife

We arrived back at the launch site a little after 5pm. Jeff B., Heather, Ben, and I decided to continue exploring beyond the causeway. The sun was starting to go down, and the fall colors were looking more vibrant than ever.

Oh fall, how I love thee.
 

At the south end of the lake we discovered the inlet creek, so we paddled up it until we couldn't turn our boats around anymore (dodging scary spiders and carp along the way). The creek winds through fields as opposed to the wetland/wooded inlets of other Finger Lakes.

Me exploring the inlet - thanks Jeff B. for the picture!

After circumnavigating the south end of the lake, we paddled back through the little opening in the causeway. The conditions on either side were drastically different. To the south end (down wind), the water was perfectly calm and wind-free. As soon as we passed through the opening we encountered a decent wind and chop - it was quite exhilarating!

Heather and Ben returning to the north side of the causeway at the end of the night.

We got back to our cars just as it was getting dark. Much to my delight, Ben and I discovered (1/2 of) a delicious mint chocolate bar on my dashboard. What better way to end a day of kayaking?! Perfect, I say, just perfect.

One more lake to go (Canadice). I will be sad when this is over!

A Tribute to the Earthen Dam

...A mini lesson in hydrology by Emily and Nena
Scroll down for sweet movies!!!

I apologize in advance: This is not a post about kayaking... It is, however, related to the outdoors and water.

Along the top of the earthen dam.

Last fall I took a really interesting class called "Watershed Engineering," in which we analyzed and designed water control structures (dams, culverts, channels, etc). One of our projects was to analyze the Virgil Creek earthen dam.  For some unknown reason, a few of us fell in love with the dam, and have been back to visit (and camp out...) a few times.
 

Looking upstream, from the top of the dam. This is a typical flow for the creek.

The dam is a "dry dam", which means it only holds back water when there is a large rainfall event.  It was designed after a storm in 1981 that cause massive flooding in the town of Dryden. Construction was completed in 1998. It was made to handle a 100-year flood, which means it can hold a LOT of water. The metal gates keep the gradient of the stream from being too steep, slowing down the water and preventing excess erosion. Today there was so much water that we couldn't even see these gates!

The emergency spillway

Around the outside there's also an "emergency spillway" (see above) which would hypothetically route extra water around the dam, should the flood be greater than a 100 year flood. If water over-tops an earthen dam, the dirt will erode quickly, and the entire dam will disintegrate in minutes, causing an incredibly destructive wave to go down and upstream from the site. Ok, enough background. Today Emily and I (we missed our other watershed engineering friends who have moved on from Ithaca!) went to the dam to see what happened after 5 inches of rain fell in one day. We didn't know what to expect. There was a LOT of water!

Fall 2009 - normal fall day!

Fall 2010 - after a big storm on Sept 29th!

It was really exciting for water nerds like me and Emily! There are so many things we wanted to tell you, so we decided to make a mini movie about it. I hope I don't normally say 'like' this often...

This one is only about 1 minute long and shows the outflow of the dam. It's crazy! Normally there is just a calm trickle of water... This movie shows you the energy dissipator in full force -- it forces the water to churn intensely and get rid of some of its energy so it won't scourge the sides of the creek and cause massive erosion.

 

Ok, I'm officially a huge nerd. Back to kayaking now. Post about circumnavigating Otisco Lake will arrive shortly after Sunday!